Assistance is sought in identifying in Turkish sources references to the man known as Arnulph le Turque in France at the end of the eleventh, but primarily at the beginning of the twelfth century.

During the campaigns of the "First" Crusade at Dorylaeum (1097), Antioch (1098), Ascalon and Jerusalem (1099) a Seljuk Emir Hayraddin Saladin was captured by French Crusaders. Count Raimund IV of Toulouse (Raymond of St. Giles) sent the emir to France, where he was knighted and admitted into the nobility as Arnulph le Turque. He bore on his shield as well as on his helmet a lion holding the sun, the sun signifying the deity of the Turks, the lion - valor or strength.

History and tradition identify Arnulph le Turque as a progenitor of the Turk family, which in France became known first as "le Turk" and later as "de Turk". King Francis I renewed the original grant of arms to Reginald le Turk. The copy of this grant at Nismes in 1529 is still to be found in the archives of Paris. Reginald married Louison de Foix. He was the mayor of Nismes and at his death in 1554 he was survived by two sons. Their names were Victor and Hugo le Turk. The descendants of Victor remained in the province of Languedoc, where the name finally died out. Hugo on the other hand settled at Rochelle in the northwestern part of France, where he became a master mechanic. He married Margat de Privas. He died in 1601 and was survived by four sons: Michael, Harman, Robert and Sancred de Turk. The family name spread itself to other parts of Alsace and Lorraine [ref. European Heraldic and Family Data in the library at Versailles and Paris, VIII, 192, cited in History and Genealogy of the DeTurk, DeTurck Family, Eugene Peter DeTurk, Kutztown, PA: DeTurk Family Association, 1934 {GS film # 1321165 item 1}].

The account of Hayraddin Saladin derives from the referenced 1934 account. Michael Foss’s People of the First Crusade (1997) records that Raymond of St. Giles made a treaty with the emir of Tripoli (between Damascus and Allepo) that if he were to defeat the emir of Cairo and take Jerusalem that the emir of Tripoli would be christened. The emir of Tripoli was Jalal al-Mulk of the famous and learned Banu Ammar family. Raymond of St. Giles later established imself over the principality of Tripoli and personally never returned to France.

Was a christened Jalal al-Mulk supplanted by Raymond of St. Giles and returned in his stead to France? Could he have been one and the same as Hayraddin Saladin? If so, is there a genealogical record of the Banu Ammar family?

Toni Richard Turk (trturk@earthlink.net)